Gay Characters in Comics

The world’s first all-gay superhero team fights a 50-foot lesbian, teams up with a group of deadly (pink!) ninjas, battles zombies, and tries to cope with the dramas of their own love lives in the award-nominated comic book series, Martin Eden’s Spandex. Titan Books’ new story hits shelves June 19, and the Brighton-based heroes have already won the hearts of many in the British indie comics scene.

Eden conceived of the super-powered team while working on his popular comic soap series, The O Men, aiming to make something more self-contained and more, well, gay. A glamorous transvestite, a powerful lesbian, and other rainbow-friendly characters dive into drama, action, and romance like no other superteam before them. “This comic has been a labour of love for me — it’s fun and experimental, and I’m really excited about taking the characters and the comic to a much wider audience,” Eden said.

Since DC Comics recently revealed the identity of one of its newest gay superheroes — Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern — we thought it was a prime time to ask Eden about his favorite gay comic heroes. We shared his picks past the break, including one of Eden’s characters who you can meet when Spandex: Fast and Hard publishes next week. Tell us about some of your favorite gay characters below.

Love and Rockets’ Maggie

“I always think of Maggie as a lesbian, but she is actually kind of bisexual. She was in a lesbian relationship with Hopey [her bass-playing best friend] for ages, and then dated several women, but now she’s with Ray. It doesn’t really matter — the characters in Jaime Hernandez’s part of Love and Rockets seem so real, and you just enjoy whatever they get up to.”